I’m Not Back, But: How To Conquer A Reading + Blogging Slump Like A Pro (Because I Know All!!) // Catch-Up Thing-y?

Yes, my posting is all over the place. Yes, I’m okay with that.

My name is Lu and I am here to guide you through your book blogging life, like Yoda* because I know all, obviously, and we’re pretty much the same height and both look like trolls??? What does Yoda even look like?? I forgot???

Me right now ^^ see, we’re basically the same

back to the focus of this post: cakes are delicious, don’t you agree? CAN YOU BELIEVE I HAVE A FRIEND THAT DOESN’T LIKE CAKE??? Aren’t I a great person, befriending, and forgiving these sinners?Anyway: BACK TO THE FOCUS. I think that if you gaze upon previous posts, they’re pretty ranty, and I don’t think that there was much of my mojo there? IDk reading them back (which was a huge cringe-session for me, yes) I was just like, can I please just actually be pleasant? I sounded like a huge mound of salt attacking the universe. I apologise?? Actually, no I don’t because ranting is my life**. I am a lump of salt and I am proud of that.

*confession, never seen star wars??? I hope that this reference makes sense?? **after cake and books, naturally.

And of course, there are MANY more out there because we are all human and YES WE GET STRESSED.

realise you need a break.

I was in HUGE denial of needing a break because I am Lu and I PERSIST. I refused to think about it for ages, and in order to do so, just plunged right into writing post after post. Obviously, little did I know that with every word I was writing, I was tumbling further and further into the cesspit that is feeling that you have to post. Because feeling that you have to post is a “disgusting and/or corrupt” place to live in.

And of course, I was beating myself up about not reading ten thousand books per week because I am silly and expect to be Thor after one workout. (wait?? it doesn’t work that way???)So. Either you notice on your own that you’re basically the leftovers of a fire (a twig, perhaps) lying in the ash of your burnt sanity and your last twig is dwindling out fast and you know that you need to go on a break to save the depleting fire that is you, OR you write an Angsty™ post like I did and wail about not knowing what to do and listen to the trillions* of people that told tell you. to. abandon. ship. (for only a little while b/c must come back!!). and. save. yourself. And then maybe like a week later you realise that yes, these shouty internet people are yapping at you to go away because they care about you.(THANK YOU, EVERYONE, WHO TOLD ME TO GO AWAY, I APPRECIATE YOU SM!!)

*okay, maybe not trillions, maybe just billions??

now, you go away.

> get off WordPress.

You gotta just be firm and say “NO I AM NOT EVEN GOING ON THE SITE TODAY” and while you flail inside for the first moment because Withdrawal™ is a dark, dark, place, this teeny fragment inside you KNOWS that this is what you need and you need to listen to that one cell in your body for 0.25 seconds and not post.

Honestly, I should be a life coach. I’d be great.

I stopped checking people’s posts for a few days and checked my reader every couple days. And while I felt bad for commenting late, it was okay because I know that if I’d been checking my reader I’d get all twitchy and start getting into the mindset that I have to post otherwise my blog will jump into the void and I’ll just sit in an empty field for the rest of my life.Honestly, I think that going away for a bit (kind of, I still did the odd post like once a week to kill the free time that I had) made me just completely chill about blogging. And, I was PETRIFIED ABOUT A BREAK. I honestly was. But the amazing people on the internet made me realise that I needed this.

Go live in your duvet for a bit! Actually, sleep? Make free time for you to just sit there and say “I’m bored” because holy flipflap it felt good to not have something to do ALL THE TIME. Rest your eyes from all the screens!! JUST LEAVE WORDPRESS AND THEN COME BACK WHEN YOU’RE READY.

> log off Goodreads.

I don’t even use GR that much because the app confuses my puny brain.

But you need to stop feeling the pressure to read and that means removing seeing how much everyone else is reading!!

I stopped reading as many books as I could?? I just can’t work that way. ARCs were stressing me out, so I put them aside for a bit too, and I reread City of Bones with Ruby and I just read at a slow pace and stopped when I didn’t feel like it.

After pressuring myself to read it was nice NOT to. And now, I actually don’t have a slump anymore?? Isn’t that MAGIC?? I read the All For The Gametrilogy (The Foxhole Court) and I reread the last book b/c I love it that much???, and I read Alice Oseman’sNick and CharlieNovella (Solitaire 1.5), andOpalby Maggie Stiefvater in four days and honestly, it was so nice to read again and just LOVE what I was reading.

… and you don’t come back straight away all guns blazing…

Do you want a repeat of what just happened?? Where you were living off caffeine and looked like a mad scientist as you crumbled under the pressure you were putting on yourself?? No, you do not.

Write a post, wait a while. If you’re feeling that “I HAVE TO WRITE ANOTHER POST ASAP” thing, and your eye’s got this twitchy thing going on and you feel the craze creeping back, back. away. slowly.

If you write the post and you’re cool it’s plain sailing, there’s no stress, u got dis, test the waters, BUT DON’T JUST DIVE BACK IN YOU FOOL.

IF YOU DIVE RIGHT BACK IN YOU WILL BE RIGHT WHERE YOU STARTED AND IT WILL HAPPEN ALL OVER AGAIN.

And the same goes for reading, don’t say, “omg I was on a blogging break and read seven books* so next month I’ll hope to read nine!!” in the most optimistic way possible.

LIke,,,, did you not … SEE WHAT THAT THOUGHT PROCESS DID LAST TIME?? Did you… DID YOU NOT? I know, books and shiny; beautiful and they call to your squinting eyes to read them.. but tell those books “Nah, not this time Sunshine.”

*oops I did that… BUT I’M NOT GONNA TRY READ 3475 BOOKS NEXT MONTH B/C I WILL BREAK MY EYES AND MY BRAIN WILL FRY.

How have you recovered from reading slumps? What do you do when you have a posting slump thing? How do you know when you need a break? When was the last time that you had to go on a break? How are you??? LET ME KNOW.

43 thoughts on “I’m Not Back, But: How To Conquer A Reading + Blogging Slump Like A Pro (Because I Know All!!) // Catch-Up Thing-y?”

I’m lucky that because I write posts in advance (by at least a week or two) whenever I feel like going on hiatus I can. And unfortunately, that seems to be every couple of months. I do much the same thing that you did, I write and I write and then I wake up one day and I just can’t make myself do it. Honestly, having a hiatus every month or two has really helped me.
I also find that since I stopped making a tbr, I haven’t felt the pressures of writing a wrap up every month and so I feel more okay with only reading a book or two in a month if that’s the kind of month I’m having.

Oh god, goodreads in general is confusing. And yes I feel the pressure to participate and conquer but sometimes enough is enough. We all need a break… she types while curled up on the sofa in her dressing gown. 🤫

I think one of the hardest things for me about reading slumps was learning that I have to just let myself…not. read. Putting pressure on myself to find something that I’ll like during a reading slump just contributes to the feeling of not wanting to read for me, and I’ve come to realize that sometimes you just have to allow yourself to take a break if you need to. It doesn’t make you a bad reader or bad blogger; you’ve got to do what you need to do. Good luck 🙂

I had a mini blogging break this past week. Sometimes you do need to take a step back and almost shut down everything related to WordPress and blogging just so you can come back fresh again ready to interact and blog and post and comment and everything that comes with it. 🙂
Your tips are definitely good ones to follow Lu, and I really love and agree the last one about not needing to come back 110% all at once. Start off slow even if it’s just catching up on comments and blog hopping, or even if it’s just catching up on comments and leaving the blog hopping for another day. Like you said the important thing is not feeling like you’re going to need another hiatus because you threw too much in at the end of the hiatus you just had.
Great post though, and hopefully you’ll be ready to come back to WordPress soon as well. 🙂 ❤

Yeah I always try and take a step back before it reaches that stage, because if it ever does I know I’ll be gone a long time and I don’t want that.
A lot of time even if it is worth it I get what you mean.
That’s all right. 🙂 ❤

thank you o great cake queen for passing on your knowledge onto us. having done ~most~ of this stuff firsthand, it really helps!! when i was on my hiatus the only social media i used was twitter because the community is always so nice ❤

THE DON'T DIVE BACK IMMEDIATELY THING IS SO. IMPORTANT. you need to take it slow!! otherwise you'll just end up where you started and no one wants that 😦

sometimes blogging can cause unnecessary pressure and whenever that happens i'm like: ??? BLOGGING IS SUPPOSED TO BE SOMETHING I LOVE DOING. not something that i see as a moral obligation and feel guilty for not doing. smh @ myself.

I love this post. I always get so into blogging hat for a few days it’s the only thing I do or think about. And what happens next? I obviously get bored and then I just don’t know what I should do. I never realize that sometimes a break is what we need. Seriously thank you for this post!

This is such a great post – and thank you for sharing my post, you’re so sweet ❤ I feel that takin a break every once in a while is the hardest thing to do and, no matter how much I do it, I always feel bad and guilty and everything else. I haven't checked out my WP reader in like, four days and I am freaking out. I left for a weekend and I feel like I have so much to catch up on and it is crazy. It's crazy to feel like this, haha, we are all terrified that everything will go away if we leave for a couple days or take a break. but sometimes it's also good for… our sanity, hahaha.
Lovely post! I hope you are doing well and am sending you all the love ❤ ❤

THIS POSTTTT. Logging off goodreads periodically is so important because it honestly adds so much pressure to read and really makes reading become a chore. I’m glad you’re out of your slump and are slowly getting back into reading/blogging, I miss youuu!!!

wow im the first comment here!! this is such an important post i love it so much omigosh!1 the first step is the hardest. accepting you need a break is so difficult because you kind of get attached to the idea that blogging is the only thing that you can do and something that will always be there and letting it go, even just for a while, can be terrifiying because you’ve been doing it for so long and you feel this sense of loss, guilt and so many other things. but i guess we just have to remember that we have our lives and life it soo short to be spent doing things we dont wan to do. blogging is supposed to make us happy and it’s doing the opposite, we need to take a step back.

YEAH WERE SO ATTACHED and it’s or child and we don’t want to lose it bc it’s beaut and WHAT IF IT GOES AWAY while we’re gone???? Exactlyyyyy. I think that taking a step back is the best thing that you can do at times (and I’ve totally realised that now!!)

I sometimes feel like I need to write 10 posts in like 1 day. Obviously I am not able to write 10 posts but I emd up losing my interest in blogging and I find everything boring. I need to control myself. But I seriously can’t. Also may I just say that the writing style of this post is soooooo good. How can you write posts like this , Lu?

Omg writing ten posts in a day.. HONEY I KNOW THE FEELING. I feel like I want to get all the blogging stuff for like 2 weeks OUT THE WAY and be prepared and then I realise… I cannot write 1000 words a minute!!

Aww thank you so much that’s so lovey to hear (tbh it’s the craze of sleep deprivation and being just,,, crazy???)

Can I just say: I LOVE THIS POST SO MUCH AND I THINK IT’S SO NECESSARY. I can definitely also relate to feeling guilty after disappearing from WP & GR, but I think at some point all of us need a break from blogging—and that’s completely okay! We have to always remind ourselves to read what we LOVE instead of drowning under piles of ARCs :))

I’m in a blogging slump at the moment. I just can’t seem to get the motivation to do up posts. So I am reading books, no problem with that, it’s just the blogging afterwards that I am having issues with. Arrrgh, I wish I could get over this slump!!!! Anyways, great post, and awesome advice 🙂

ARENT THEY THE WORST?? CAN THEY BURN?? If they can’t burn on their own, I’ll give them a hand!! Thank you so much!! Honestly I think you need a break!! Don’t stress about when you’re coming back, but when you’re relaxed, the motivation will come back and you’ll feel that you WANT to rather than feeling that you want to because you feel you have to!

Thank you so much, and I hope that you have a good, relaxing break and take care of yourself!! ❤️❤️

AAAAAAA good that you’re taking a break FOR YOURSELF and that you realise that posting for the sake of it when you’re not feeling it is BAD BAD BAAAAD. Thank you for being a strong child.
Also I’ve never seen Star Wars *screams*